Golf game apparatus wherein balls with overspin cannot rebound to strike golfer



Aug. 18, 1970 CQNKLIN ET AL 3,524,649

GOLF GAME APPARATUS WHEREIN BALLS WITH OVERSPIN CANNOT REBOUND TO STRIKE GOLFER Filed 0011. 27. 1966' SP/A/ 0575:: 7Q?

,V/EDA 5. .5 1.0 FORM 4-586 7/5048 HIGH OEIVS/TY GOLF GAME APPPARATUS WHEREIN BALLS WITH OVERSPIN CANNOT REBOUND T STRIKE GOLFER Robert M. Conklin, Muslregon, Robert I. Anderson, Spring Lake, and Donald E. Bayne, Muskegon, Mich., assignors to Brunswick Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 27, 1966, Ser. No. 589,962 Int. Cl. A63b 67/02 U.S. Cl. 273-176 12 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An indoor golf game including a generally upright target, a penetrable screen in front of the target for receiving a projected scene, spin detecting apparatus and a tee construction that effectively precludes a ball from being hit from the tee with so much overspin that balls can rebound from the target to the tee to strike and injure a golfer. In the exemplary embodiment, a lie simulating mat having a yieldable portion ahead of a predetermined tee point precludes a ball from being pinched between the mat and the club head in such a manner that overspin is placed on the ball. Further, a notch extends from the tee point towards the target with generally diverging, vertical side walls to intercept certain balls rebounded from the target. There is additionally provided a net in between the target and the tee point for intercepting rebounding balls.

The recent upsurge in the popularity of the game of golf together with the inability of currently existing outdoor golfing facilities to handle the ever increasing number of golfers has led to a number of proposed indoor golf games, some of which have been commercialized. Some of the proposed golf games, in order to facilitate realism, utilize spin detecting equipment that detects the spin on a ball hit from a tee and provides information relative to the spin to a computer which controls a socalled ball spot projector accordingly to provide the golfer with a perceptible indication of the trajectory of the ball driven from a tee including the effects of spin.

Currently proposed spin detecting systems that may be used in conjunction with a computer require that a re1atively rigid surface be located in the path of a ball so as to cause the ball to rebound therefrom to a spin detecting apparatus which measures the deviation of the ball from a theoretical no spin trajectory. In other words, the spin on the ball will cause it to rebound from the rigid surface to a point at the spin detector that will difier from a point at the spin detector to which the ball would have rebounded had it not had spin thereon by a distance proportional to the amount of spin on the ball.

In such spin detecting systems, the rigid surface from which the ball rebounds to the spin detecting equipment is generally, more or less vertically arranged in order to cover a multitude of elevation angles at which a ball may be hit from a tee. Thus, due to the vertical arrangement of the rigid surface, there is a possibility that a ball having a significant amount of overspin will not rebound from the rigid surface to be intercepted by the spin detecting equipment, but rather, will rebound from the rigid surface back toward the golfer at the tee area to possibly strike and injure the golfer.

It is, therefore, the principal object of the invention to provide a means for preventing injury to a golfer playing an indoor golf game due to a ball rebounding from the game equipment toward the golfer.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide a means that prevents and/or dissipates overspin im- United States Patent 0 Patented Aug. 18., 1970 parted to a golf ball such that the golf ball will not rebound back toward the golfer.

Another object is the provision of a golf game having a tee from which golf balls may be driven, a rigid target supported near the tee for receiving the golf balls driven therefrom, data acquisition means associated with the target for acquiring data relative to the trajectory of golf balls driven from the tee and elastically colliding with the target and a means for precluding golf balls driven from the tee and elastically colliding with the target from rebounding from the target back to the tee to preclude the possibility of injury to the golfer.

Yet another object is the provision of a golf game such as that set forth in the preceding paragraph wherein the tee area includes a predetermined tee point and there is provided a mat located in the tee area encompassing the tee point for simulating the lie on a predetermined portion of the golf course, the mat being adapted to support a golf ball at the tee point, a yieldable pad supporting the portion of the mat located forwardly of the tee point and a notch in a rigid support means that defines the tee area, the notch having sides that are arranged to diverge for Wardly from the tee point.

A still further object of the invention is the provision in a golf game of a rigid target, spin detecting means operatively associated with the target, a tee from which golf balls may be driven to elastically collide with the target and normally rebound therefrom to the spin detecting means, and means associated with the tee for precluding an amount of overspin sufiicient to cause a ball to rebound from the target to the tee from being imparted to,

the ball by a golfer.

A further object is the provision of a means for realistically simulating the lie on a portion of a golf course and for minimizing the amount of overspin that may be imparted to a golf ball for use in a golf game having a tee from which balls may be driven to elastically collide with a generally vertically arranged, rigid target and rebound therefrom at a relatively high velocity to a data acquisition device, the lie simulating and overspin minimizing means comprising a grass-like material from which a golf ball may be driven and first and second yieldable means for supporting the grass-like material, the first yieldable means being more yieldable than the second yieldable means and adapted to be located forwardly of a predetermined tee point in the tee area.

A still further object is the provision of a lie simulating and overspin minimizing means according to the preceding paragraph wherein the first yieldable means comprises a low density foam pad and second yieldable means comprises a sheet of rubber-like material supported on a medium density foam pad.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section of a typical environment in which a device made according to the invention may be used;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the environment and illustrating a portion of the means utilized in the instant invention to prevent the rebounding of golf balls toward a golfer; and

FIG. 3 is a vertical section of another portion of the means used for preventing the rebounding of golf balls toward a golfer.

One typical environment in which a means for preventing the rebounding of golf balls toward the golfer made according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. Specifically, there is provided a room having a floor, generally designated 10, which supports a spin detector 12 having a spin detecting surface 13. Additionally, there is provided a platform 14 which defines a tee area from which a golf ball 16 may be driven from a tee point 18.

The golf ball 16 is driven toward a rigid elipsoidal shell which causes the ball to rebound to the spin detector 12. Typically, a screen 22 of the penetrable type is interposed between the tee point 18 and the shell 20 for receiving a projected scene representing the scene from a given point on a golf course.

Data acquisition equipment, not shown, may be interposed between the screen 22 and the tee point 18 for providing a computer, not shown, with information relative to the initial velocity of the ball, the initial angle of elevation and the initial angle with regard to the azimuth.

The physical relation between the tee point 18, the shell 20 and the spin detector 12 is described in the copending application of Cornell et al., Ser. No. 470,363, filed July 8, 1965, now Pat. No. 3,364,751, and assigned to the same assignee as the instant invention. In the Cornell et al. application, it is disclosed that the ball 16 hit from the tee point 18 will elastically collide with the shell 20 and rebound to very nearly the same point on the spin detecting surface 13 of the spin detector 12 regardless of its initial angle with regard to elevator or azimuth if the ball has no spin thereon. However, when the ball does have a spin placed thereon, it will encounter the spin detecting surface of the spin detector 12 at a point differing from the point of no spin impact by a distance proportional to the spin on the ball. This is due to the fact that the angle of rebound of a golf ball from the shell 20 will differ from the angle of incidence of the ball thereto by an amount proportional to the spin on the hall.

For almost every case the spin detecting surface 13 of the spin detector 12 is sufficiently large so that a ball rebounding from the shell 20 will encounter the spin detector 12. However, in one particular instance the spin placed on a ball may be so great as to cause the angle of rebound of a ball from the shell 20 to be so different from the angle of incidence that the ball will fail to come in contact with the spin detector 12. More specifically, the case in question is that where a golfer tops the ball.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that a topped ball will have an unusually large amount of overspin. This is due to the fact that when a golfer tops the ball he will generally strike the ball at a point in the swing when the head of the golf club is moving upwardly from its lowermost point in the swing, or alternatively, strike the ball before the lowermost point in the swing. Additionally, when a golfer tops a ball, the club head will generally contact the ball at a point on the surface thereof above a horizontal plane passing through the center of the ball. This factor alone places a good deal of the overspin on the ball.

An additional factor materially contributes to the overspin on a topped ball. Because the ascending club head will contact the upper hemispherical portion of the surface of the golf ball, the ball will be driven generally along the intended line of flight and will also be forced downwardly into the ground or other ball supporting surface. Thus, the combinational effect of the point of impact and direction of the club head and the resisting effect of the ball supporting surface may cause the golf ball to be pinched between the club head and the ball supporting surface, and in any event the club head will act on the upper surface of the ball in one direction and the ball supporting surface will resist movement of the ball by applying a force to the underside of the ball in the opposite direction.

The resultant two force vectors which are applied on opposite sides of the center of the ball and in opposite directions act together to cause an extreme amount of rotation of the ball about its center in the manner commonly known as overspin; and because the ball is acted upon by both forces substantially simultaneously, the amount of such overspin is significantly greater than any spin imparted to the ball solely by the influence of club head motion alone.

Because the club head is tending to drive the ball downwardly, it will be apparent that in addition to having a great deal of overspin thereon, the ball will travel in a relatively low trajectory such as that illustrated by the dotted line 24 in FIG. 1 until it encounters a shell 20. Because the overspin on the ball is so extreme, the angle of rebound may differ substantially from the angle of incidence and the ball may rebound from the shell 20 along the dotted line indicated at 26 in FIG. 1 to return through the screen 22 to the tee area to possibly strike the golfer and injure him.

It has been found that the overspin imparted to a topped ball may be sufiiciently minimized so as to preclude the just described action from occurring by substantially eliminating the force vector applied to the underside of the golf ball by the ground or the ball supporting surface. Accordingly, the invention contemplates a means for precluding the placing of a significant amount of overspin on the ball.

Turning now to FIG. 2, the construction for precluding the existence of significant overspin on the ball will now be described. Specifically, in the indoor golf game, there is provided a mat 28 from which a ball may be hit toward the shell 20 which is generally in the plane of the platform 14 and encompasses the tee point 18 so as to be capable of supporting the golf ball 16 at the tee point 18.

An area, generally designated 30, immediately in front of the mat 28 is cut away from the platform 14. Specifically, there is provide a generally Y-shaped notch 31 with a mat 28 being located in the base of the Y. The arrangement is such that there is a generally V-shaped notch located in front of the mat 28 having its edges diverge forwardly of the tee point 18 with the apex of the V shape defined by the notch located at the tee point 18.

Beneath the notch 31 there is placed a second platform 32 which is located at a substantially lower level than the platform 14 which may be on the order of six to fifteen inches. The upper surface of the platform 32 may be covered with a layer of soft foam which in turn is covered with a suitable decorative covering such as green carpeting. As seen in FIG. 1, side walls 31a of the notch 31 are vertically interposed between the platforms 14 and 32.

At the leftmost end of the platform 32 there is provided an elongated slot 33 which may be used in conjunction with photocells (not shown) for acquiring data relative to the initial direction of a ball hit from the tee point 18.

Spaced from the leftmost edge of the platform 32 is an inverted U-shaped net-like structure 34 which may be secured to the side walls of the room housing the tee area. As seen in FIG. 1, the upper edge 36 of the net structure 34 is maintained at a height about equal to that of the platform 32 above the floor 10.

The spin detector 12 is located to the left of the netlike structure 34 and the shell 20 is in turn located to the left of the spin detector 12 as seen in FIG. 1.

Turning now to FIG. 3, the construction of the mat 28 will be described. The upper surface of the mat 28 is formed of an artificial grass-like material 38 similar to that currently in use in indoor sport stadiums. A butyl rubber pad 40 supports the grass-like material 38 from the rear of the mat 28 to a point about one-half inch in front of the tee point 18, the location of which is determined by the nature of the data acquisition system used in the indoor golf game.

The butyl rubber pad 40 is, in turn, supported upon a pad 42 which may be formed of a medium density polyetherurethane open-celled foam such as that sold by the General Tire and Rubber Company under the trade name Polyfoam P-SS. The foam pad 42 is in turn secured to a suitable rigid base such as a plywood sheet 44.

As seen in FIG. 3, a second foam pad 46 is located to the left of the left end of the butyl rubber pad 40 and extends between the grass-like material 38 and the plywood sheet 44. The foam pad 46 is formed of a low density polyetherurethane open-celled foam under the above mentioned trade name.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention the pad 40 is about V2 inch thick, the pad 42 is about 2% inches thick and the pad 46 is about 3% inches thick. As will become apparent hereinafter, this construction maximizes the realism in simulating the lie on the fairway while minimizing the overspin that may be imparted to a golf ball and is extremely rugged and long lasting.

The manner in which the just described construction precludes a topped ball from rebounding from the shell 20 back toward the tee to possibly strike a golfer will now be described. Because of the notch 31, a topped ball cannot be driven by a golf club into the solid upper surface of the platform 14 to have overspin placed thereon due to the effect of a rigid surface acting on the underside of the golf ball. Rather, the golf ball may contact the surface of the platform 32 but as this platform is located significantly below the plane of the platform 14, the ball cannot be pinched between the surface of the platform 32 and the club head thereby precluding the simultaneous action on the ball of both of the forces mentioned previously. Additionally, since the platform 3-2 is foam covered, it will yield and absorb some of the energy of the golf ball thereby reducing its velocity to minimize the effect of spin.

Should the golfer top the ball 16 so as to pinch the ball between the club head and the grass-like material 38 just in front of the tee point 18, it will be apparent that since the grass-like material 38 is supported essentially solely by the low density foam pad 46, the grass-like material 38 will yield downwardly (as opposed to providing opposition to downward movement of the ball 16) thereby substantially eliminating the pinching elfect so that effectively the only overspin imparting force acting on the ball will be that provided by the club head itself.

In the case where the ball is topped, but not actually pinched between the club head and the ball supporting surface, the extremely yieldable nature of the foam pad 46 permits the artificial grass-like material 38 to yield to the 'ball so that the resisting force applied by the former to the latter is minimized. The minimizing of the second, resisting force vector results in the minimizing of overspin on the ball to a degree sufficient to preclude the ball from ultimately rebounding backwardly from the shell 20 into the tee area defined by the platform 14.

The purpose of using both foam pads 42 and 46 is that the medium density foam pad 42 provides a relatively less yieldable support for the artificial grass material 38' than does the low density foam pad 46 and the less yieldably supported portion of the artificial grass 38 more realistically simulates the feel of actual turf during club head contact therewith than does the portion of the artificial grass material 38 supported by the low density foam pad 46. However, the portion of the artificial grass material 38 supported by the medium density foam pad 42 is not sufiiciently yieldable to eliminate the pinching effect to the degree necessary for the preclusion of the existence of significant overspin on the ball. Thus, the use of pads 42 and 46 both maximizes the realism of the simulation of a lie on actual turf and minimizes, to the degree required, the amount of overspin that may be imparted on the ball by a golfer.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that both the presence of the notch 31 and the use of the low density foam pad 46 will effectively minimize the amount of overspin placed on a topped ball. In almost every instance, the minimization of the forces by the above described structure will cause the ball to rebound from the shell 20 to contact the spin detector 12. In all instances, the above described construction will preclude the ball from rebounding backwardly from the shell 20 to the tee to injure the golfer.

In the event the above described construction does not minimize the spin imparted to the ball sufliciently so that it will strike the spin detector 12, the arrangement of the net structure 34 will arrest movement of any ball rebounding from the shell 20 and failing to contact the spin detector 12.

As an additional safety precaution, should a rebound ing ball avoid both the spin detector 12 and the net 34, the vertical side walls 31a of the notch 31 will intercept the ball before it returns to the tee area defined by the platform 14. However, the effectiveness of the overspin minimizing structure described previously and the net 34 in virtually every instance render such structure generally unnecessary.

Having described specific embodiments of our invention for exemplification purposes, we do not wish to be limited to the specific construction set forth, but rather, to have our invention construed according to the following claims.

We claim:

1. A golf game comprising: a rigid support defining a tee area from which golf balls may be freely driven from a predetermined tee point therein; spin detecting means for receiving golf balls and for determining the spin on golf balls; upright rigid target means located to receive golf balls driven from said tee point and for normally rebounding the same to said spin detecting means at high velocity; a mat in said tee area encompassing said tee point for simulating the lie on a predetermined portion on a golf course, said mat being adapted to support a golf ball at said tee point; a yieldable pad supporting the portion of said mat located forwardly of said tee point; and notch means in said rigid support forwardly of said paid and having generally vertical, ball stopping sides arranged to diverge forwardly toward said target means.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said yieldable pad is formed of a foam and the portion of the mat extending rearwardly of said tee point is supported by a pad of foam having a higher density than the foam of said yieldable pad so that that portion of the mat forwardly of the tee point is more yieldable than that portion of the mat extending rearwardly of said tee point.

3. The invention of claim 1 wherein said notch is generally Y-shaped and said mat is located in the base of the Y-shaped notch.

4. A golf game comprising: means defining a tee area from which golf balls may be freely driven; generally upright rigid target means spaced from said tee area for directly receiving golf balls driven therefrom, said rigid target means being operative to rebound golf balls hit from said tee area and impacting against said target means at a high velocity; data acquisition means operatively associated with said target means for obtaining data relative to the trajectory of golf balls driven from said tee area and elastically colliding with said target means; and means for preventing golf balls driven from said tee area and elastically colliding with said target means from rebounding from said target means back to said tee area whereby injury to a golfer at said tee area is precluded, said preventing means comprising means associated with said tee area for dissipating the overspin producing force that may be imparted to a golf ball by a golfer to an extent such that a golf ball to which an overspin producing force has been imparted upon impacting said target means cannot rebound therefrom and strike the golfer due to overspin on the ball.

5. The invention of claim 4 wherein said data acquisition means includes a ball receiving surface spaced from said target means, said target means further being operative to normally rebound golf balls driven from said tee area toward said surface.

6. The invention of claim 4 wherein said dissipating means comprises a cutaway portion in front of said tee area.

7. The invention of claim 6 wherein said cutaway portion comprises a generally V-shaped notch.

8. The invention of claim 4 wherein said tee area includes a mat from which balls may be driven and said dissipating means comprises yieldable means mounting a portion of said mat.

9. The invention of claim 8 wherein said yieldable means comprises a foam pad.

10. The invention of claim 4 further including net means interposed between said tee area and said data acquisition means.

11. In a golf game, the combination of: means defining a tee from which golf balls may be freely driven; spin detecting means located in front of said tee means for detecting the spin placed on a ball by a golfer hitting the same from the tee means; rigid target means in front of said tee means for receiving a golf ball hit from said tee means and normally rebounding the same at a high velocity to said spin detecting means; and means associated with said tee means for dissipating the overspin producing force that may be imparted to a golf ball by a golfer to an extent such that a golf ball to which an overspin producing force has been imparted upon impacting said target means cannot rebound therefrom and strike the golfer due to overspin on the ball.

12. A golf game comprising: means defining a tee area from which a golf ball may be freely driven; spin detecting means for receiving golf balls for determining the spin on the golf ball; a generally upright, rigid target means located in front of said tee area to receive golf balls driven from said tee area and for normally rebounding the same at high velocity to said spin detecting means; a mat at said tee area for simulating the lie on a predetermined portion of a golf course and adapted to support a 8 golf ball, said mat comprising means providing a grasslike material from which a golf ball may be driven, a sheet of rubber-like material supporting a rearward portion of said grass-like material, a first foam pad supporting said sheet, and a second foam pad supporting the remainder of said grass-like material, said second foam pad being more yieldable than said first foam pad and located forwardly of a predetermined tee point in the tee area so that the portion of said grass-like material forwardly of said tee point is more yieldable than that rearward of said tee point; a notch in the tee area forwardly of said second foam pad and having vertical sides diverging forwardly towards said target; and a vertically arranged net interposed between said spin detecting means and said notch.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,657,913 1/1928 Barnett. 2,879,996 3/ 1959 Lederer.

702,828 6/ 1902 Smith. 1,419,636 6/1922 MacDonald 273-196 X 1,531,128 3/1925 Paulson 273-196 1,574,596 2/ 1926 Barnett. 3,128,627 4/1964 Harris. 3,142,487 7/1964 Portteus 273195 X 3,364,751 1/1968 Cornell et al.

GEORGE J. MARLO, Primary Examiner U.S-. Cl. X.R. 

